Kogo erases asterisk, foes
Jon Neill has been waiting for someone to kick a little Bloomsday asterisk.
And on Sunday, Micah Kogo provided the favor, blowing away the competition in the elite men’s field of the 2008 Lilac Bloomsday Run – and the asterisk that has been haunting Neill and his fellow race organizers for the past 13 years.
Kogo, a 21-year-old Kenyan and Running Times Magazine’s No. 2-ranked road racer in the world in 2007, edged away from a tightly bunched pack of runners at about the 3-mile mark of the 12 kilometer (7.46 mile) event and breezed to an easy victory over his nearest rivals, Ridouane Harroufi and three-time champion John Korir.
His record-setting time of 33 minutes, 51 seconds not only erased the previous record of 33:53 set by Josphat Machuka in 1995, but the asterisk that had been next to Machuka’s record time, as well.
The troubling asterisk, according to Neill, Bloomsday’s Elite Athlete Coordinator, had been used to denote an adjusted time, which was the fix race organizers used after belatedly learning that the course that was used in 1995 and 1996 did not measure a full 12 kilometers.
“I love it,” Neill said, shortly after Kogo crossed the finish line 23 seconds ahead of Harroufi, who ran 34:14 and edged Korir (34:17) for second place. “Now we can finally get rid of that asterisk.”
It became evident early on that Machuka’s record was in jeopardy as an immensely talented group of elite runners bolted from the starting line on a brilliant spring day that produced near-perfect conditions for the 32nd annual running of the event.
Kogo, making his Bloomsday debut, stayed with the lead pack until about the 31/2-mile mark, when the runners turned onto Fort Wright Drive. That was when he opened up a modest 10-meter lead that he stretched to over 200 meters by the time he reached the top of Doomsday Hill.
Running seemingly effortlessly, Kogo kept his focus on the road in front of him and eventually opened up a unbeatable lead that allowed him to cross the finish line just a few seconds after the rest of those in the lead pack made the turn onto Monroe Street and started their final kick.
Kogo said he looked back twice in the race – once at about the 5-mile mark, when he increased his lead to a comfortable 200 meters, and again when he was only 100 meters from the finish line.
“At two miles, the pace was a little bit slow,” Kogo explained. “Then before three miles, I try to push the pace, and I didn’t see anyone respond.”
It was about a mile and a half later when he took his first glance back at the competition and started feeling, for the first time, that he had the race won.
“I didn’t look back after that mile until about 100 meters (were left), and, again, no one was there,” Kogo added. “So I just try to push more and more until I reach the finishing line.”
Many of the elite runners seemed content to hang with Korir, even when Kogo pulled away. But it proved to be a flawed strategy.
“He was very fast today, very strong,” Harroufi said of Kogo. “At 5K, he was just too far ahead.”
Kogo said he hopes to return next year to defend his title.
“It was a difficult race,” he admitted, “but I hope to be here next year, because it’s a nice course for me. It’s hilly, and I like it, because in Kenya we train on even higher hills.”